Answering to 13 Million Bosses

Running any municipal infrastructure is a daunting task. The Environment and Public Spaces Ministry of the City Government of Buenos Aires (GCBA) knew that the key to increased efficiencies and lower costs was to eliminate complexities with a Run Simple strategy. After implementing a customized version of SAP ERP, repair times were reduced from months to days. The Ministry’s 3,000 employees now have immediate access to information, allowing them to be proactive with maintenance schedules. The possibilities are just beginning.

1913

1935

1949

1996

Autonomous City of Buenos Aires established.

2007

First major snowfall in 89 years.

2013

Awarded the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Customer Snapshot:Business Model

The Big Task of Urban Maintenance

At all times, the City has teams of inspectors out on the streets to detect problems and ensure smooth operations. The Ministry of Environment and Public Space receives requests and reports from citizens and other organizations by phone, mail, internet and mobile apps and works with over 150,000 contractors to respond to the different types of requests.

About 190,000 citizen claims and 150,000 failures detected by inspectors are processed every year.

Over the years, challenges related to maintenance became so big that the Ministry decided to standardize processes through dashboards that keep track of tasks in real time and manage workflows, analyze data and deliver the right information to each department. The initial scope with SAP CRM covered permits for constructions and repairs in public spaces; today, it is fully integrated with a maintenance system covering streets, sidewalks, streetlights, green areas and trees.

Customer Snapshot:Success Strategy

Faster, Better Decisions Improve City Living

Because urban matters really do matter here, the city has taken further steps. Using the SAP Mobile Platform, they’ve now developed a mobile app for the street inspectors to enter and process data on site, enabling them to make faster and better decisions in real-time. Potholes, defective street lamps, and broken water pipes are reported to the Ministry which in turn notifies the contractors, speeding up the repair process and directly impacting the quality of life for residents. The mobile app is also used to inspect stores, issue permits related to public spaces such as sidewalk tables for restaurants, and to inspect and issue permits for street fairs and flea markets, which are plentiful throughout the city.

Using innovative technology and support from the SAP Urban Matters Initiative, residents are engaged in enabling a good government. They are empowering public officials to be more productive, increasing community engagement, driving innovation around government service delivery, and improving urban resilience to help ensure public safety and security.

The Challenge

Paper, Paper Everywhere

The Ministry’s employees lacked an integrated system to prioritize work and communicate with contractors. They relied mostly on Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access—paper solutions that carried their own problems. These manual processes slowed maintenance and made planning far more difficult.

All our contracts were on paper, and there was no active control of what was being done. We couldn’t administer claims . . . because we had no execution protocols or administrative processes in place.– Rodrigo Silvosa, General Director of Control Management for the Environment and Public Spaces Ministry sector of GCBA

Enter SAP

Road to Modernity

The Ministry spent a year studying and comparing processes in place at various departments. Once they identified the specific problems, a custom version of SAP ERP was deemed the best fit for their business processes, which are similar to any industrial plant.

Enter SAP:The SAP Experience

Roll Out

The SAP software was implemented in stages, beginning with the permit process for roadways and sidewalks. It continued with routing service requests to a call center, finally expanding to include the three departments responsible for lighting, sewer systems and shelters.

We focused first on the areas perceived to be our weakest: streets, sidewalks, and trees. Most of the claims and complaints from citizens were related to the state of these objects and the performance of their maintenance. The SAP software proved to be a reliable system for managing those issues, so when we felt comfortable with those areas, we continued our SAP journey and rolled out more functionality.–Edgardo Cenzón, Urban Hygiene Undersecretary, Environment and Public Spaces Ministry sector of GCBA

Better Business

Delivering Information

Implementing SAP Netweaver Process Integration (SAP Netweaver PI) to tie everything together and SAP Netweaver Business Warehouse (SAP Netweaver BW) to consolidate data has been a key to success. The Ministry has built more than 30 dashboards that take data from SAP and allow for real-time analysis of the information.

Better Business:Benefits

Mobile and Real-Time Effects

The shift away from a paper-based culture has allowed the Ministry to make an immediate impact. Claims and complaints are responded to in a matter of days, rather than weeks or months. Bottlenecks can be quickly identified and resources shifted to address specific needs.

Using the SAP HANA platform to analyze real-time sensor data from storm drains and SAP Mobile Platform to ensure streets and drains are clear, the City of Buenos Aires is well prepared to handle the effects of heavy storms.

Better Business:Run Simple

Just Keeps Getting Better

Streamlining the administrative processes and back-office functions has allowed The Environment and Public Spaces Ministry to take control of its operations and make better decisions. Vendor relationships have improved as Ministry workers can effectively communicate needs and assess contractor work performance. And access to reliable data on maintenance history and equipment has led to better asset management and budgetary planning.

With real-time capabilities and mobile app tools fully engaged and embraced by all, the evolution of services and improving the quality of life for the citizens of Buenos Aires is practically limitless—and it seems so easy compared the days of paper trails.

Journey Ahead

Changing the Business Culture

SAP implementation has more than doubled the Ministry’s productivity, in terms of planning municipal maintenance and repairs. In just three years, all of the Ministry’s departments are integrated into the new IT platform. Automated reporting has replaced paperwork and the future has never looked brighter.

Cultural change is what’s next on the agenda. We spent 40% of our SAP investment on training programs for the 800 SAP users to learn to use the new system.–Rodrigo Silvosa, General Director of Control Management for the Environment and Public Spaces Ministry sector of GCBA

Work & Prosperity

The main factor in providing economic empowerment and ending poverty, hunger, and exclusion is fairly paid jobs. SAP software helps companies work better to bring economic prosperity and jobs to people around the world.